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Carbon-graphene hybrid supporting platinum–tin electrocatalyst to enhance ethanol oxidation reaction

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Abstract

Direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC) is promising source for mobile and portable applications, but the electrocatalysts are based on metal noble alloys or doping elements to minimize the incomplete ethanol oxidation and poisoning effect. While the main problem persists, this study describes the enhancement of ethanol oxidation reaction by adding graphene (G) to Vulcan XC-72R carbon black (C) metal support, with different C/G ratios. The Graphene was prepared from exfoliated graphite following by dried at ambient temperature. The 60 wt% graphene hybrid support enhances the current density at 5% cyclic voltammetry (CV) and 127% chronoamperometry (CA) higher than carbon pure support in acid electrolyte, whereas in alkaline, graphene (60 wt%) showed the highest electrochemical activity with an increase of current 82% (CV) and 130% (CA). Therefore, we demonstrated the enhancement of the catalyst electrochemical activity in both electrolytes through a simple synthesis method. The 40 wt% carbon and 60 wt% graphene hybrid support achieving higher performance in ethanol oxidation, evidencing a potential application in DEFC.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, CNPq, F.C. grants 554569/2010-8, R. V. G. grants 440726/2020-4 and 302582/2021-5, Fapemig grant APQ-01359-21 for financial support, and the Brazilian Institute of Science and Technology (INCT) in Carbon Nanomaterials and Nacional de Grafite Ltda. T.L.B. thanks Capes from scholarship.

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  1. Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Av. Esperança sn, Campus Samambaia, 74690-900, Goiânia, GO, Brazil

    Tarso L. Bastos & Flavio Colmati

  2. Instituto de Ciências Tecnológicas e Exatas, Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro, Av. Doutor Randolfo Borges Junior, 1250, 38064-200, Uberaba, MG, Brazil

    Rogério V. Gelamo

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Conceptualization, TLB and FC; methodology, TLB; RVG. and FC; formal analysis, TLB and FC; investigation, TLB, resources, RVG and FC; Data curation, TLB and RVG; writing—original draft preparation, TLB; writing—review and editing, FC, RVG; supervision, FC; project administration, FC.

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Correspondence to Flavio Colmati.

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Bastos, T.L., Gelamo, R.V. & Colmati, F. Carbon-graphene hybrid supporting platinum–tin electrocatalyst to enhance ethanol oxidation reaction. J Appl Electrochem 54, 1225–1237 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-023-02027-2

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